A good friend, a good soldier, a good everything. .
The problem is, good hasn’t gotten him anything but a crushed heart.

So after licking his wounds, he decides to move on. And moving on doesn’t include being good anymore.

Bad sounds so much better.

Jaded and detached, Brand is determined to never open himself up to anyone again. It’s not worth the pain. Instead, he becomes closed, hardened, aloof.

But then he’s called back home for a family emergency… a family that he is estranged from. A family that he put out of his mind a long time ago for very good reasons…reasons that involve secrets and pain. Reasons he tried hard to forget.

But home is where the heart is, and it just might be where Brand finds his again.

Why? Because home is where Nora Greene is. A fiery, red-headed spitfire, Nora is a thing from his past. A beautiful, feisty thing. When Brand left, she was away at boarding school.

But she’s back now.

And she wants Brand, scars and all.

This series! I’ve raved about it before, and I’m about to do it again. Brand, oh, Brand. I had been wanting his book for so long. After Jacey turned down Brand in Before We Fall, I knew there was so much more to that guy, and I was thrilled to learn he’d get his own book. This did not disappoint.

Brand is forced to return to Angel Bay, a place he’d rather never see again, and just after doing so, jumps in during tragedy. And that’s when he meets (or rather, meets again) Nora Greene, daughter of uber successful, Angel Bay royalty Maxwell Greene. After saving her life, Nora feels indebted to him, and steps in to his help with his recovery after his leg is injured during the accident.

Nora has plenty of secrets of her own, but she decides, this summer, she’s finally going to do something about her attraction to Brand. She’s felt it since she was a little girl, but this ex-Ranger’s not been back in Angel Bay for years. Now’s her chance, and she’s going to lay it all on the line while she has time. After this summer, she’ll be forced to enter the workforce at Green Corp, something she’s dreading, and she knows she’ll probably never see Brand again.

This man is like catnip for my vagina.

One thing I especially loved about this book was the pacing. I sat down to start it, and found myself nearly devouring it. Nora decides to pursue Brand, and she just goes for it. There’s not a lot of awkward, close encounters; rather, she just strips down, struts around the house, and propositions him.

The chemistry between Brand and Nora is fantastic. They’re a bit sarcastic, witty, but they’re definitely sexy, too.

“Want a pole?” I ask her, watching my bobber float on the surface of the water. Nora chuckles.

“Yes. Didn’t I make that clear last night?”

At first, Brand resists Nora. He knows she’s worth more than some quick, meaningless summer fling, but he can’t hide the fact that he’s undeniably attracted to her.

So when they finally give in to the attraction, they find there’s more than a no-strings relationship there … for both of them. But they’re dealing with personal demons, and so the journey we’re taken on as they try and exorcise those is very well-done. I won’t discuss what either had to go through, but it did make my stomach turn, on numerous occasions.

The end of this book. Sigh. Wow.

Courtney knows how to grab you and make you love characters, but then drag you through the mud with them. And like all the other books in this series, Brand and Nora are Beautifully Broken, but they’re not irreparably damaged. And together, they figure this out. I can’t recommend this series enough. I’m sad to see it end, but so love all the characters I’ve met throughout it.

ABOUT COURTNEY COLE:

Courtney Cole is a novelist who would eat mythology for breakfast if she could. She has a degree in Business, but has since discovered that corporate America is not nearly as fun to live in as fictional worlds. She loves chocolate and roller coasters and hates waiting and rude people.

Courtney lives in quiet suburbia, close to Lake Michigan, with her real-life Prince Charming, her ornery kids (there is a small chance that they get their orneriness from their mother) and a small domestic zoo.

I have a husband, two kids, a dog, and a fish.
Aside from that, I'm a self-proclaimed book nerd, obsessed with coffee, blogs, and proper sentence structure. I thrive under pressure, and working in the editorial scene (as in, at my house, with my kids staring at me, almost never wearing a bra) has provided lots of that ... in the best way! When I'm not reviewing books here, chasing after the little people who share my DNA, I'm trying to make a dent in my never-ending to-read list. I'm always changing and trying to do something bigger and better.
There's really nothing I won't read. Combining my love for books with my super nerdy love of the English language has been such a natural step, and being able to work with so many talented authors has been fun and inspiring.
I'm an over-sharer, and I like to talk and think ... and talk about thinking.
Happy Reading!
Madison